“You never know how good you can be until you’re forced to be better than you are”

Steve Levitt had been harbouring a secret for months.

Stepping into the tent for the fifth season of CBC's The Great Canadian Baking Show this past summer was a surreal enough, but going the distance was icing on the cake – if only he could share his secret with family and friends, let alone the world.

By the time he sat down with his wife, children, and a small group of friends at their Aurora home on Sunday night, he was able to shake the secret off his shoulders as he wowed judges as a finalist, alongside Ottawa's Aimee DeCruyenaere and ultimate victor Vincent Chan of Mississauga.

“More than anything it was amazing,” says Levitt on being able to watch the finale last week. “Even though you don't get to see a ton of the baking because of time compression, it was really amazing to see what was going on with the other bakers more so than what I was doing. I would see the results, but to see how they got there and some of the thought process of how they got from A to B was really remarkable.

“As [we watched, my family and friends] kept saying, ‘How did you keep this a secret for so long?' The only people who had any notion of anything that night might be my wife and kids because I would speak to them every day [while on the show] and even then I didn't want to ruin anything for them. Even my kids were sitting on pins and needles without a clue as to how it ended.”

It began with Levitt almost in a state of disbelief that he was picked for this season after auditioning in previous years. After each unsuccessful application, he focused on growing as a baker. Despite his initial disbelief, he entered the tent with confidence, simply anticipating the journey.

But it was so much more than that. In addition to wowing the judges – and the country – with intricate bakes, including his final show-stopper revisiting some of his bakes during the run of the season that didn't quite turn out as planned, he came away with nine genuine friends from his fellow competitors who, since the end of taping, have kept in touch and traded baking tips along the way. 

“I knew it would be fun,” he says. “I looked at many, many baking shows as my baking got better but I never pulled the trigger and applied because there's something about The Great Canadian Baking Show that is so beautiful. They seemed like they were friends. Yes, they're competing but they're not really competing – maybe it is because there is no prize – but how quickly and strongly we bonded I didn't see that coming at all.”

Nor did the promotional marketing product executive foresee how he and his fellow contestants would be embraced by viewers at home and further afield.

“It is multi-generational,” he says. “Some would tell me they watch it every Sunday with their grandmother, or it is the only time in the week where the entire family gets together, gathering around the TV on Sunday to watch, and that just warmed my heart.”

Perhaps Steve's most valuable takeaway from the experience is being able to recognize just how good of a baker he actually is.

“I learned so much from the other bakers and also from practicing and trying to get something done I wanted to get done,” he says. “Even though I was there (in the tent) I had the feeling like I don't know if I belong, I don't know if I am good enough. Obviously, part of me felt I was and I thought when I watch it back I am going to feel like that, but what keeps me hungering for more knowledge is that I never feel like it is just going to be enough. Even when I found myself last night (Sunday) and it was the three of us, I felt, ‘How did I end up being with these two phenomenal bakers?'

“Getting on the show forced me to become a better baker. I thought if I never got on, I would just keep going because I developed this passion. That passion is stronger than ever and I am just going to keep going forward trying new things. At the end of the day, it will always be for me. I said to the judges. ‘You will always get something I will eat.' It will always be for me, it will never be for monetary gain. If I can sell it, lovely, but if I can make someone happy, that has been the greatest thing outside of this tent.

“If you like to bake, or even if you think you're not good enough or just a home baker, you bake for your kids, your grandkids, or maybe you bake for your grandparents, just go forward and make the application [to be a part of this] because you never know how good you can be until you're forced to be better than you think you are.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter